New Publication

Matts project on tertiary amine organocatalysis is published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering special issue on Mechanochemistry. Matt has demonstrated in some cases that the aza-MBH reaction can be run in significantly shorter reaction times (3 hours compared to 3 days) in the absence of reaction solvent. Matt also observed that asymmetric induction is possible in the absence of solvent although seemingly diminished in comparison to having solvent present, as ever, a privilege to work with Louis Morrill on this.

070- Expedient Organocatalytic Aza-Morita–Baylis–Hillman Reaction through Ball-Milling

Matthew T. J. Williams, Louis C. Morrill* & Duncan L. Browne* ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c07320

Welcome to Dr Jamie Leitch

The group welcomes Dr Jamie Leitch as PDRA, working on a Leverhulme Trust funded project in collaboration with Prof. Adrian Porch and Dr Rebecca Melen . Jamies project will explore the use of Microwave analysis to determine the frustratedness of Lewis Pairings. Jamie was previously PDRA in the Dixon group and PhD with Prof. Chris Frost

Groups work highlighted on Organic Chemistry Portal

The groups work on the Zinc-mediated Barbier-type allylation reaction under ball-milling has been further highlighted, this time over at the Organic Chemistry Portal https://www.organic-chemistry.org/abstracts/lit7/215.shtm

PhD Student gives a talk at GSK Postgraduate Symposium

We're proud to have Will Nicholson representing the group today with a research talk at GSK's online Postgraduate Symposium event! Will will talk about mechanochemical C-N bond forming reactions, we expect many questions about pros and cons of milling - hopefully stimulating for all!

Welcome to New PhD student Robert Bolt

The group welcomes Robert Bolt to UCL as a PhD student, Rob joins our effort in mechanochemistry, having previously studied for his MChem in the team in Cardiff. Welcome Rob.......sorry about the tricky start!

New Publication

Andy, Will and Harry's thiol arylation project is published in Organic Letters. This took significant effort from Andy to increase the substrates scope using zinc metal. Andy found that addition of zinc metal to the reaction minimised disulfide formation and opened up the substrate scope to permit inclusion of alkylthiols. This project also highlights the robustness of reactions when conducted under ball-milling conditions

069- A Robust Pd-Catalyzed C–S Cross-Coupling Process Enabled by Ball-Milling

Andrew C. Jones, William I. Nicholson, Harry R. Smallman & Duncan L. Browne* Org. Lett., 2020, 22, 7433-7438.

Congratulations to Dr Stark

Congratulations to Roddy who passed his viva today and is the third member of the group to pass with a PhD (this time collaboratively with Ian Fallis), we are very proud of his achievements, getting up for those early morning preparations of Radio-FDG for patients must have been very rewarding....especially during the afternoon problem sets!. Thanks to Matt Tredwell and James Hodgkinson for examining via Zoom, its a shame we could celebate in person, but we still sent a tankard (and drinks). The tankard reads 'llongyfarchiadau'! Good luck Roddy.

Groups work highlighted on YouTube ChemHelpASAP channel

The groups work on the Zinc-mediated Barbier-type allylation reaction under ball-milling has been highlighted by Prof Erland Stevens on his YouTube channel 'ChemHelpASAP' aimed at highlighting recent literature to undergraduate students see: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFyccbHcGaAVaM_mTubDe2A for the ChemHelpASAP channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR57VQqVSC4 for the video corresponding to our publication.